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Where Trump was right about terror in Sweden

On ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl asked Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky to comment on President Donald Trump’s remarks at a rally in Florida on Saturday. Given the media focus on Trump’s set-back with the resignation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and a growing narrative of “chaos” at the White House generated by Democrats and the media, Karl as if Trump was right in saying that his administration is actually a “fine-tuned machine.”

Paul responded, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And, from where I sit, we have done a lot of good things.” He went on to praise the rollback of regulations through the use of the Congressional Review Act, which he said have saved hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs.” He said that the repeal of Obamacare is on-track and that Trump’s Cabinet picks “have exceeded my expectations.”

Karl pressed on with what he called the “chaos theory.” He then played a clip from President’s rally outside of Orlando on Saturday in which he denounced a recent ruling by a federal court to sustain a lower court’s stop on his executive order that temporarily halted the admittance of the citizens of seven mostly-Muslim countries and on refugees in general. At the rally, Trump said, “You look at what is happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers, they're having problems like they never thought possible.” At no point did Trump mention terrorism in Sweden, even though multiple media outlets sought to call him out on the issue. He would later issue a tweet to clarify that he was referring to a story on Fox News.

My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.

While Trump did not identity to which specific incident he was referring, Karl appeared to deny that violence has seen a recent uptick in Sweden, which has taken in thousands of refugees, many of whom are from Muslim Countries. He Said, “Now that was in a riff where he was talking about terror attacks. So we scrubbed the -- the records, scrubbed news reports out of Sweden. Do you have any idea what he was talking about?”

Paul replied, “Well, I think there have been some altercations. There was a New Year's Eve altercation I think a year ago where there was quite a few things that were happening that did involve refugee populations. And I believe that was in Sweden.

“But you know I think that anybody who thinks that it has been seamless and no bumps in the road in Germany with allowing a million people to come in, no, I think there have been problems.

And I think there are legitimate concerns that get sloughed over here. For example, World War I, World War II, immigration came to a grinding halt in our country during these wars. And the question I ask is if someone wants to come from Aleppo tomorrow, how do you know who they are? There is almost nothing left in Aleppo. I don't know that there is paperwork. I don't know that you can ask people in Syria, where there is a dysfunctional government, to give you legitimate paperwork on people.

“So, I think it is very, very difficult to vet people from there -- Yemen, Sudan, all these places that are engaged in war. I think those are legitimate concerns for our national security.”

In The Spectator of the UK, writer Tove Lifvendahl wrote an article entitled, "Trump is right: Sweden's refugee policy has led to problems it never imagined.” He wrote that the “awful truth is that Trump was right, and that the “problems that the police admit they simply cannot handle because no one thought that they were possible.”

Lifvendahl reported last year that a British boy, Yuusuf Warsame, was killed in a grenade attack in a suburb of Gothenburg in what was apparently a gang war within the Somali refugee community. In another incident, a four-year-old girl was murdered by a car bomb outside Gothenburg in another incidence of gang warfare.

In a related interview, on Fox News, journalist and documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz claimed that high-ranking members of Sweden’s government are purposely covering up the identities of those accused of rape in order to protect supposedly protect "vulnerable" refugees and migrants. Horowitz claimed that the reckless assertion of so-called "European virtues" has put a halt to any examination of the criminal statistics. For example, of the 160,000 asylum-seekers accepted in 2016, Fox News claimed that only 500 have found employments, in other words: 0.3 per cent of those who arrived to claim refugee status.

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson asked why is Sweden admitting so many refugees. In response, Horowitz said, "In Sweden's own words, they consider themselves to be a 'humanitarian superpower,' probably the only super power they would qualify for. So they feel it is their moral duty to all and any refugee that want to come, too."

Police in the city of Malmö have admitted that they cannot cope with the spate of serious crimes that include rapes, murders and attempted murders, beatings, and other offenses. Malmö police chief Stefan Sinteus called for witnesses to provide information so that the police can catch the criminals. “We cannot do it on our own,” he said. In an open letter to the public, Sinteius wrote,“I can assure you that the police in Malmö are doing everything we can for suspected perpetrators to be held accountable. But we cannot do it on our own. We depend on you, and your witness statements, to solve these violent crimes. Therefore I appeal now to you: Help us.”

Democrats and other critics of Trump were quick to seize on his statements about Sweden. Chelsea Clinton compared it to a statement made by presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway (since retracted) about terrorists in Bowling Green, Ohio. Conway explained that a "slip of the tongue" led her to speak erroneously of a terrorist incident in the city in northern Ohio. In reality, it was two Iraqi refugees who were admitted during the Obama administration and returned to the Middle East where they received military training and killed American troops. They were later caught in Bowling Green, having amassed weapons in a storage locker.

What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?